SoCon Week 9

[The Jackal]

Week 9

Mercer @ VMI
ETSU @ Wofford
UTC @ Furman
Samford @ The Citadel

At this point, our rooting interest should be for
Mercer to handle business in Lexington and stay highly ranked.
ETSU needs to beat Wofford and make our road win a little nicer
Samford needs to lose at some point, and preferably to a team we've beaten. I'd rather that be Mercer or UTC, though.

[FUBeAR]

Week 9

Mercer @ VMI
ETSU @ Wofford
UTC @ Furman
Samford @ The Citadel

At this point, our rooting interest should be for
Mercer to handle business in Lexington and stay highly ranked.
ETSU needs to beat Wofford and make our road win a little nicer
Samford needs to lose at some point, and preferably to a team we've beaten. I'd rather that be Mercer or UTC, though.

True…but it would be best for Samford to lose 2 Conference games…possibly even 3, if things break really oddly…so, let’s go ahead, swallow what it makes come up our esophagi, and give it our best “GO BELLHOPS! BEAT SAMFORD!!”

[saltyshaker]

no guys we need samford to beat mercer.and us to beat mercer.that way we could afford a loss to chattanooga giving us 2 vrs mercer's 3.worst case for us is to lose 2 of the next 3 but next worst is for 4 teams to lose no more than 2 conference games.and if the playoff committee only takes 3 conference teams,somebody gets left out.if that's the case mercer with already one loss and us with already one are the two most likely to get to 3.and if i'm on the bubble,i'd rather be a team with 2 conference losses than 3.

[FUBeAR]

no guys we need samford to beat mercer.and us to beat mercer.that way we could afford a loss to chattanooga giving us 2 vrs mercer's 3.worst case for us is to lose 2 of the next 3 but next worst is for 4 teams to lose no more than 2 conference games.and if the playoff committee only takes 3 conference teams,somebody gets left out.if that's the case mercer with already one loss and us with already one are the two most likely to get to 3.and if i'm on the bubble,i'd rather be a team with 2 conference losses than 3.

FUBeAR needs a visual aid to process all that.

FUBeAR assumes Furman wins ‘em all (always)…so 9-2/7-1 … 8-1 vs. FCS - definitely a playoff bid…BUT…

If Samford wins out or only loses 1 Conference game…they are ahead of FU for the AQ and any (early) tiebreaker. Need them to lose 2.

If you’re only interested in playoffs, maybe your program makes sense, but FUBeAR also has the (unshared) SoCon Championship and the AQ in mind.

[tya1]

no guys we need samford to beat mercer.and us to beat mercer.that way we could afford a loss to chattanooga giving us 2 vrs mercer's 3.worst case for us is to lose 2 of the next 3 but next worst is for 4 teams to lose no more than 2 conference games.and if the playoff committee only takes 3 conference teams,somebody gets left out.if that's the case mercer with already one loss and us with already one are the two most likely to get to 3.and if i'm on the bubble,i'd rather be a team with 2 conference losses than 3.

FUBeAR needs a visual aid to process all that.

FUBeAR assumes Furman wins ‘em all (always)…so 9-2/7-1 … 8-1 vs. FCS - definitely a playoff bid…BUT…

If Samford wins out or only loses 1 Conference game…they are ahead of FU for the AQ and any (early) tiebreaker. Need them to lose 2.

If you’re only interested in playoffs, maybe your program makes sense, but FUBeAR also has the (unshared) SoCon Championship and the AQ in mind.

If Furman wins out, including a victory over Chattanooga, and Chattanooga beats Samford on Nov. 12 (game is at Chattanooga) then there could be a three way tie for first place. Furman , Chatt, and Samford would be co-champions with 2-1 records against each other and undefeated against the rest of the league. What is the next tiebreaker?

[Louis Tully]

They would all be considered co-champions. The next step in determining the automatic qualifier would be each ones record against the highest ranked opponent not involved in the tie and so on down the line.

[AllTimeFU]

Wouldn’t that be ETSU and then what?

[apaladin]

Wouldn’t that be ETSU and then what?

In the above scenario all 3 teams would be undefeated against the rest of the league. Not sure what the tie-breaker is but IIRC it is points given up? I could be wrong.
Update: I was correct. If the 3 way tie is not broken the points allowed among the tied teams is considered. If that does not break the tie then its a random draw. This only determines the automatic bid. All 3 teams would still be co-champions.

[The Jackal]

Wouldn’t that be ETSU and then what?

In the above scenario all 3 teams would be undefeated against the rest of the league. Not sure what the tie-breaker is but IIRC it is points given up? I could be wrong.
Update: I was correct. If the 3 way tie is not broken the points allowed among the tied teams is considered. If that does not break the tie then its a random draw. This only determines the automatic bid. All 3 teams would still be co-champions.

https://static.soconsports.com/custompa ... otball.pdf

Best thing is to keep winning.

[FUBeAR]

Wouldn’t that be ETSU and then what?

In the above scenario all 3 teams would be undefeated against the rest of the league. Not sure what the tie-breaker is but IIRC it is points given up? I could be wrong.
Update: I was correct. If the 3 way tie is not broken the points allowed among the tied teams is considered. If that does not break the tie then its a random draw. This only determines the automatic bid. All 3 teams would still be co-champions.

https://static.soconsports.com/custompa ... otball.pdf

Best thing is to keep winning.

This sentence…

If the tie is still not broken, the team with the fewest points allowed among the tied teams shall be considered.

…is horrible.

1) shall be considered what?
2) fewest points allowed…
a) in all games?
b) in only SoCon games?
c) in games vs. the other tied Teams?

[stonemd]

There could be 1 socon champ w no losses or a 2,3 or 4 way tie. I think in any case we get 3 teams in playoffs, which would be tough w a 4 way tie.

[The Jackal]

Wouldn’t that be ETSU and then what?

In the above scenario all 3 teams would be undefeated against the rest of the league. Not sure what the tie-breaker is but IIRC it is points given up? I could be wrong.
Update: I was correct. If the 3 way tie is not broken the points allowed among the tied teams is considered. If that does not break the tie then its a random draw. This only determines the automatic bid. All 3 teams would still be co-champions.

https://static.soconsports.com/custompa ... otball.pdf

Best thing is to keep winning.

This sentence…

If the tie is still not broken, the team with the fewest points allowed among the tied teams shall be considered.

…is horrible.

1) shall be considered what?
2) fewest points allowed…
a) in all games?
b) in only SoCon games?
c) in games vs. the other tied Teams?

That sentence has always been confusing.

I forget how it was specifically applied, but it was applied in 2018, I think. Furman played at Mercer and going in, knew they had to (1) beat the Bears and (2) hold Mercer to (I think) no more than 11 points.

Did the first, not the second, lost the tie breaker and got left home despite being a SoCon co-champ.

[gman84]

In the 2013 season there was a three way tie. FU got the auto bid to the playoffs. If I'm not mistaken, it came down to point differential amongst common opponents or something like that. We had no problem with it because we were the benefactor. Some team will always get screwed no matter how they set up the tie breaker.

[The Jackal]

In the 2013 season there was a three way tie. FU got the auto bid to the playoffs. If I'm not mistaken, it came down to point differential amongst common opponents or something like that. We had no problem with it because we were the benefactor. Some team will always get screwed no matter how they set up the tie breaker.

In 2013, the tiebreaker didn't get that far.

Furman shared the SoCon title, but benefitted from the second tie breaker - record against the next highest rated teams.

3 teams tied at the top at 6-2 - Furman, UTC, and Samford.

There were four teams tied for "second" at 4-4 in the SoCon: GSU, Wofford, App State, and the Citadel. Furman had beaten all four of those teams. UTC was 3-1 (lost to GSU). Samford was 3-1 (lost to the Citadel). Furman won the auto bid. 8 win UTC got left home.

Oddly, the fact that Furman had lost to arguably the SoCon's worst team that season (Elon) didn't negatively impact them with the auto-bid because they had run the table against those four 4-4 teams. I believe that Elon game was one of the two that Duncan Fletcher started at QB.

[The Jackal]

I noticed Will Healy was fired at Charlotte.

If I was Wofford, I'd be blowing up his phone.